Meta Connect 2026: Date, Time, What to Expect

Meta Connect 2026: Date, Time, What to Expect, and Everything We Know

Part of ourVR, AR and XR events calendar. See also theSteam Frame hubfor the launch landing the day before, and ourQuest 4 tracker.

Meta Connect 2026 runs September 23 to 24, with the keynote on Wednesday the 23rd and developer sessions on the 24th, streamed from Meta’s Menlo Park campus. Meta announced the dates on May 28 and teased a new pair of smart glasses in the same breath. It did not tease a headset, and the roadmap explains why: the gaming Quest 4 is pointed at the second half of 2027 and the ultralight Puffin headset at the first half, so anything Meta shows on stage is a preview, not a product. Expect a glasses-led keynote, a Horizon OS software story built around Hologram calling and AI, and a headset tease at most. This page tracks every signal until the show and becomes the everything-announced recap afterward.

Dates, time, and how to watch

Meta Connect 2026 schedule as published on Meta’s registration page, checked September 6, 2026.

Registration for the free livestream is open atmeta.com/connect, which frames the show as a two-day livestream about “AI technologies, AI glasses and VR,” in that order. Meta has not posted a keynote start time yet. Coverage of the May announcement pointed to a late-afternoon Pacific slot, which would put it in the evening for the US East Coast and overnight for Europe; we will update this table when Meta commits to a time.

What Meta has actually said

Two things. TheMay 28 save-the-datepromised “the latest in VR, wearables, metaverse, and AI” and a look at Meta’s “next computing platform,” and it carried an image of an unnamed pair of smart glasses. Then in July, CTO Andrew Bosworthtold Quest owners to stay tuned for Connectbecause there would be more to share about Meta’s next headsets. That is the entire official record. Everything else on this page is reporting, roadmap leaks, and inference.

What the roadmap allows on stage

Meta is building two headsets and neither ships this year. The traditional Quest 4 effort was rebooted under the codename Griffin after the Pismo prototypes were scrapped, and reporting puts it no earlier than the second half of 2027. The more interesting device is the ultralight, puck-tethered headset that has gone by Puffin, Loma and Phoenix, tracking toward the first half of 2027 atunder 110 grams on the faceand reportedly under $1,000, aimed at media, social and fitness rather than headline gaming. Meta has shown future hardware years early before, so a Puffin preview is plausible. A Quest 4 you can order is not.

Glasses are where Meta has momentum to show off, and the tease says it knows that. The credible candidates are a successor or cheaper sibling to Ray-Ban Display, whichopened to third-party developers in May, more of the neural wristband, and whatever “wearables” covers beyond eyewear. Bloomberg’s May report thatthe next Display was pulled into the first quarter of 2027makes a Connect preview the natural first look. On the software side,Hologram Calling frameworks are already sitting in Horizon OSwith product tours in the Meta AI app, which is the shape of a feature staged for a keynote demo.

The day before: Steam Frame

Valve’s stated summer window for the Steam Frame ends September 22, the day before the keynote, andtwo of the Frame’s Steam backend packages were revised on September 3, the same move that preceded Steam Machine reservations by six days. So the likeliest sequence is a Steam Frame lottery in the second week of September, first units in mid September, and Meta walking on stage a week later with no new headset to sell against a 185 gram SteamOS device that streams the entire Steam catalog. Bosworth said in May thatMeta would learn from the Steam Frame. Connect is the first chance to see what that means. OurSteam Frame vs Quest 3 comparisoncovers the two headsets that will actually be on sale that week.

Every Connect 2026 signal, dated

May 7, 2026
Andrew Bosworth confirms two next-generation headsets remain on the roadmap and says Meta will learn from Valve’s Steam Frame.
May 21, 2026
Two days after Google puts an October ship date on Android XR glasses, Meta un-pauses the European Ray-Ban Display rollout and Bloomberg reports the next Display is pulled into Q1 2027. The current price does not move.
May 27, 2026
Meta opens Ray-Ban Display to third-party developers with a native mobile SDK and a web apps route.
May 28, 2026
Meta sets Connect for September 23 to 24 in Menlo Park and teases a new pair of smart glasses in the save-the-date. It does not dangle a Quest.
Jun 20, 2026
Our Quest 4 tracker sorts every claim into confirmed, reported or rumor. The short version: not in 2026, with the price trending up.
Jul 16, 2026
Bosworth says stay tuned for Connect on headsets. The roadmap allows a tease of Griffin (Quest 4, H2 2027 at the earliest) and the ultralight Puffin (H1 2027), not a launch.
Jul 29, 2026
Setup graphics for the ultralight headset surface in Quest firmware. The weight target is under 110 grams, which asks for a Bigscreen Beyond with cameras.
Aug 27, 2026
Horizon OS builds carry Hologram Calling frameworks referencing Codec Avatars, and the Meta AI app has Hologram product tours. A software reveal shaped for a keynote.
Aug 31, 2026
Meta’s developer docs list Quest 3 as accepting refresh rates up to 207 Hz, with 240 Hz behind developer mode, then tell developers not to require it.